The present invention relates in general to furniture and partition lifting and pertains, more particularly, to a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly intended for use with equipment for lifting furniture, partitions or other articles (hereinafter referred to interchangeably as furniture or partitions) in order to access the floor surface beneath the furniture. The self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly of this invention is an improvement over conventional brackets and bracket assemblies used in association with furniture lifting equipment.
With conventional lifting equipment it is generally necessary to first select a correct bracket for use with a particular piece or pieces of furniture, such as, office partitions. This selection process often requires trial and error and furniture dimensions that vary from nominal dimensions have the potential to create problems for the user of the lifting equipment and the lifting brackets and lifting bracket assemblies.
Selecting the correct bracket requires identifying a bracket or brackets that fits into openings provided in the furniture. The openings more often than not serve another function, however, it remains common place to utilize these almost always present openings in the furniture to lift the furniture; and the bracket or brackets used to utilize these openings for lifting the furniture requires must have sufficient strength and size to support and lift the furniture.
Often a manufacturer or fabricator of lifting equipment provides a plurality of brackets for use with the lifting equipment. The bracket selected for use with a particular partition or piece of furniture may not, however, work properly with another partition or piece of furniture that does not have openings of either the same size or the same spacing as the previous partition lifted or moved in the course of accessing the area beneath the partition.
Each bracket is typically a thin plate with teeth, inserts, extensions or the like extending from an edge of the bracket and shaped for insertion into the furniture openings and then supporting the furniture during lifting. Typically, the manufacturer or fabricator provides the attachment portions for attaching the bracket or brackets or bracket assembly to the lifting equipment.
Ideally, the design of a lifting bracket matches the type and style of both a lifting apparatus used in a particular application, and a piece of furniture, a cubicle partition or other articles found resting on the floor in an office and which require lifting off the floor for the purpose of, among other purposes, the removal and replacement of flooring. However the multitude of opening sizes and spacing of the openings, particularly the spacing of the openings challenges the manufacturer's or fabricator's ability to select a single design suitable for all furniture.
Furniture opening spacing becomes particularly critical when attempting to lift two pieces of adjoining furniture. Then the lifting apparatus preferably supports a double bracket assembly as the size of most lifting devices inhibits side-by-side placement of two lifting devices with a single bracket for lifting two adjoining furniture pieces independently yet simultaneously.
Furthermore, the adjoining furniture pieces are usually joined together in some fashion. Thus, it is desirable to lift both of the adjoining pieces of furniture simultaneously with a single lifting device with a double bracket lifting bracket assembly.
However, elevating adjoining furniture pieces from a fixed point causes the two adjoining pieces of furniture, adjoining office space partitions for example, to separate during lifting. Even the sometimes short distance that the furniture needs to be elevated to access the floor under the furniture often causes some separation of the adjoining furniture pieces and, thereby, the separation of the furniture openings into which the brackets are inserted.
A drawback of existing lifting brackets and lifting equipment is the inability to adjust for the separation of the adjoining furniture pieces during the lift and the coming back towards each other during the drop. The present invention overcomes this and other drawbacks of existing furniture lifting equipment.
Another drawback to conventional brackets and bracket assemblies relates to the rigidity of a bracket assembly assembled or fabricated from a pair of brackets and an intermediate member joining the brackets. For example, when the furniture pieces or the openings in the adjoining furniture pieces are damaged or shifted such that the center-to-center distance between the openings in the adjoining furniture pieces has altered from the original distance for which the lifting bracket assembly has been manufactured, then the furniture that is to be lifted has shifted distorted so as to alter the center-to-center spacing between the openings and the rigidly assembled or fabricated lifting bracket assembly will not fit into the furniture openings as intended due to the now altered spacing of these openings.
The conventional bracket member comprises a single piece metal bracket or a pair of metal lifting brackets, typically manufactured or fabricated from a metal plate member. The lifting apparatus supports the lifting bracket assembly in any one of a number or variety of possible design configurations.
Adjusting the height of the lifting apparatus portion supporting the lifting bracket, brackets or bracket assembly defines the conventional method for adjusting the height of the lifting bracket plate or plates. As the height of the lifting bracket, bracket or bracket assembly changes due to the movement of the lifting apparatus, the insertion members or extensions of the lifting bracket plate which have been inserted into the furniture openings raise or lower the position of the item of furniture.
In a lifting bracket assembly having a plurality of individual lifting brackets, alteration of the furniture lifting opening spacing impedes the desired insertion of the lifting bracket. Once the spacing of the openings in the furniture alters from the original design, then there is often no bracket assembly constructed that fits the now skewed furniture openings sufficiently so as to allow the furniture to be lifted.
Possibly the only positive aspect of this furniture opening spacing shift is that it is usually only a horizontal shift. Therefore, an adjustable assembly is desired that adjusts for a horizontal shift of the spacing or center-to-center distance between the holes or openings in the furniture that are to be used to lift the furniture.